Couple`s Steady Work Creates Beautiful Life, Renowned Art

CORAL GABLES -- In the five decades Chow Leung Chen-Ying and Chow Chian-Chiu have been married, neither has completed a painting without the other.

Leung Chen-Ying, 72, is a master flower painter. She begins many of her paintings by putting her brush to rice paper and stroking it until a beautiful Chinese peony or a rose appears.

Her husband, Chian-Chiu, 82, then steps in and places a butterfly on the flower or creates an insect rubbing its sheer wings together.

Their collaboration is not over until Chian-Chiu writes a poem in Chinese about what he sees in the painting. Then Leung Chen-Ying transcribes the poem onto the painting in Chinese calligraphy.

One poem doesn`t appear on any of the paintings, but Chian-Chiu said it explains their philosophy on art. It`s called, The Soul of Chinese Painting:

``Fool of hilarity with magic brush and ink.

The master can portray enchanting flowers of scent.

The rule requires merely likeness.

I should think deep thought beyond the object must be evident.``

Their work is known worldwide. Two of their books, Easy Ways To Do Chinese Painting and Chinese Painting No. 2, have sold more than 3 million copies. Another book, Chinese Painting: A Comprehensive Guide, was awarded the Jin Ding, or ``Gold Award,`` from the Chinese Nationalist government in 1980. They also received the Oscar D`Italia Award in 1985 for their paintings and books.

They collaborate well, in life as in art. Few arguments occur over either.

Sometimes her flower is the principal piece of the painting, while sometimes his bird or insect is. And somehow, without even talking about it, each knows which part should be the principal.

``We`ve been married 48 years,`` Leung Chen-Ying said with a laugh.

The Chows met in Guangzhou, China, when she was an art student and he was a teacher. After marrying, they moved to Hong Kong, where they first began to develop a worldwide reputation.

Eventually, they became so well-known that in 1968, Trans World Airlines brought them to New York to design paintings for its Kennedy Airport terminal.

Chian-Chiu was president of the International Studio of Chinese Art at the time, and Leung Chen-Ying was a professor.

The Chows liked the United States so well they eventually decided to stay. They lectured at universities across the country until settling in Miami, where an admirer suggested they open a studio and offer classes.

They were reluctant, but finally agreed to do so if at least 50 people signed up for an art class. Many more than 50 signed up.

Since then, they`ve taught their craft while continuing to paint for pleasure and for clients, including former presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

Their students are usually in their 20s and not Asian. That often means they must first study tai chi chuen, a physical exercise that Leung Chen-Ying describes as ``moving meditation.``

The reason? The Chows say that before anyone can learn to paint as they do, they first must learn to move as they do.

In tai chi chuen, Leung Chen-Ying said, they learn to move fluidly, so as artists they don`t paint with a flick of the wrist, but rather with a move of the shoulder.

It is a slow, concentrated exercise that teaches patience. And patience is something American students often have little of, the Chows said.

Students often walk into the classroom and want to be a Chow-caliber painter immediately. But first they must learn primary skills. Then they sketch. Then comes the painting.

``They come in and want to do something,`` Leung Chen-Ying said. ``I say, `No, no, no, you must follow me to learn the basics.```

In addition, the Chows teach their students about the intellectual side of art.

``If you just copy, it`s not art,`` Leung Chen-Ying said. ``You have to think to make it more artistic.``

Sherril Zuckerman, 43, began tai chi chuen classes with the Chows in the mid- 1970s and later began art lessons with them. Zuckerman calls the Chows the best role models because they are always working on paintings. Chian-Chiu often is making goals for himself of painting 100 paintings before his next birthday, while Leung Chen-Ying sees one new flower and produces dozens of sketches of it, Zuckerman said.

``They`re always producing art. Their whole life is art,`` said Zuckerman, a commercial artist. ``They understand that the more they teach, the more they learn themselves.``

The Chows are proud of their work and are willing to exhibit it to guests, but not before they pour endless cups of tea and pass Chinese cookies around. Their works cover the walls of their Coral Gables home. Some rooms are almost empty except for the paintings of flowers, birds, monkeys and places the Chows have visited.

Chian-Chiu said his art gives him the ability to express all the feelings inside him.

``My eye can see and my hand can do,`` he said. ``Everybody should be an artist. Everyone has one poem.``

And though they are known throughout the world, they remain humble. Art is a way to make friends and share things with people, they say.

It also has given them the chance to travel all over the world. Last year, for example, they became the first Chinese artists to go on an Antarctic expedition. After returning home, they filled the rice paper with penguins and bundled travelers.

Those paintings, along with many of the paintings they`ve done, hang on the walls of their home and studio. But to the Chows, they`re grandparents first and painters second.

Their most prized frames are two certificates that their grandchildren, Rosalind and Vincent, earned for passing the Presidential Fitness test at their school in San Diego. Their son Chee Woo, 44, is an accountant and they are equally proud of an award he received, which also hangs in their home.

Art gives them an ability to work together and to escape from problems.

``I`m very happy,`` Leung Chen-Ying said. ``You switch on the TV or look in the paper and there`s bad news. Killings, fightings that make me feel bad. When I paint, I forget everything.``